Carlos Alcaraz leaves Southampton to join Flamengo

Recently, Southampton have completed the signing of Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale in a £25 million deal. It was followed by the season long loan signing of West Ham forward Maxwel Cornet to provide more competition and depth to the attack. However, there has been a surprise outgoing as well with the Saints reaching an agreement to sell one of their promising young players.

Russell Martin's side have sold talented young Argentina midfielder Carlos Alcaraz in a £18 million transfer to Flamengo. Alcaraz joined Southampton midway through the 2022/23 season from River Plate. The midfielder made a total of 48 appearances for the Saints and scored eight goals and provided five assists for the team as well.

Carlos Alcaraz leaves Southampton to join Flamengo

Last season, the promising midfielder spent six months on loan to Italian giants Juventus and made twelve appearances for them and won the Coppa Italia 2023/24. Alcaraz returned to Southampton and the expectation was that he would become a key player for Russell Martin's side after his important loan spell in the Serie A. This season, the box-to-box midfielder made only one appearance, where he played around ten minutes in the 1-0 defeat against Newcastle United in the opening match day of the Premier League. Now, transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano has reported that Flamengo have reached an agreement with Southampton to sign Carlos Alcaraz, saying,

"Charly Alcaraz will undergo medical tests as new Flamengo player on Wednesday.

Medical will take place in London and then he will travel to Brazil to sign five year contract.

Here we go"

- Fabrizio Romano

This move comes as a surprise as Alcaraz has been a key player for Southampton in the first half of last season, and his playmaking is brilliant, creating a lot of goal scoring chances for Southampton. However, the Saints have decided to sell him and the midfielder returns to South America, where he will want to take his experience playing in Europe to improve his qualities further as a creative box-to-box midfielder. For Southampton, they face Brentford in the third match day of the Premier League aiming to take their first points in this league season.